Vistas The Enemy - Test Papers

 CBSE TEST PAPER - 01

Class - 12 English Core (The Enemy)

General Instruction:

  • Question No. 1 to 7 carry three marks each.
  • Question No. 8 and 10 carry six marks each.
  1. Why did Dr Sadao treat the American soldier even though it was an unpatriotic act on his part?
  2. How did Hana help Dr Sadao?
  3. Why did the General not order immediate arrest of Dr Sadao who had sheltered a white man?
  4. What forced Dr Sadao to be impatient and irritable with his patient?
  5. What made a cool surgeon like Sadao speak sharply to his wife and what was her reaction?
  6. Why had to Hana wash the wounded man herself?
  7. What message does ‘The Enemy’ give?
  8. What was the General’s plan to get rid of the American prisoner? Was it executed?
  9. What conflicting ideas arise in Dr Sadao’s mind after he has brought the wounded American soldier home? How is the conflict resolved?
  10. Dr Sadao was compelled by his duty as a doctor to help the enemy soldier. What made Hana, his wife, sympathetic to him in the face of open defiance from the domestic staff?

CBSE TEST PAPER - 01
Class - 12 English Core (The Enemy)
Answers

  1. Dr Sadao treated the American prisoner of war because as a doctor he was trained to save lives. He could not have let the injured soldier die even though he was his national enemy because it would have been against his professional ethics.
  2. Hana was an impeccable wife and stood by her husband in all his decisions. She helped Dr Sadao when he was operating upon the enemy and also nursed and washed the prisoner herself when the servants had flatly refused to do so.
  3. The General did not usually keep in good health and trusted no other surgeon but Dr Sadao in his time of need and could have needed his services anytime. This is why he did not order immediate arrest of the doctor for harbouring an enemy in his house.
  4. The wounded white man urgently needed an operation as he was critically injured. Hana was with Sadao when he started operating on the prisoner. Hana, who had never seen an operation in her life, vomited at the sight of blood. Sadao wanted to help her in her distress but he could not leave his patient. This made him impatient and irritable.
  5. Hana had never seen an operation before. When Sadao started operating, blood began to flow. Hana choked at this moment. Sadao sharply told her not to faint because if he had stopped, the wounded man would surely have died. Hana clasped her hands to her mouth and ran out. Sadao heard her vomit.
  6. Hana had to wash the wounded man herself because her servants and even her maidservant flatly refused to wash an enemy American out of superstition and fear.
  7. ‘The Enemy’ gives the message that humanism transcends all man-made prejudices and barriers. Here Dr Sadao upholds the ethics of medical profession in treating an enemy. The story is a great lesson of peace, love, sympathy, fellow feeling and humanism.
  8. Dr Sadao informed the General about the presence of the American prisoner at his house. The General decided that his private assassins would take care of him and even take his body away. Sadao agreed to the General’s proposal. However, the General’s assassins did not arrive for the next three days. Consequently, the General’s plan was not executed. Sadao spent three restless nights in waiting for the assassins; ultimately, he helped the prisoner escape. When Sadao informed the General about the escape of the prisoner, the General replied that he was sick and thus forgot about the whole affair. He further wanted that Sadao must not inform anybody about this. This shows that the General was highly selfish. He had regard only for his own safety and pride. Also, he did not send Sadao to the battlefield as he needed his services himself. He considered himself more important than the lives of thousands of soldiers.
  9. From the day Dr Sadao found the wounded soldier outside his house, he had been caught up in a web of conflicts and difficulties. The first difficulty arose when Sadao decided to operate upon the soldier. He was caught between his duty as a doctor and loyalty towards his nation. Nonetheless, Sadao emerged a champion in this regard. As an ethical and sincere doctor, he saved the life of the soldier and as a responsible citizen, he also informed the General about the presence of the soldier. Later when the General’s men did not arrive to kill the enemy, Sadao was once again caught in an ambivalence (conflicting emotions) as to how to get rid of the white man. His innate virtues of compassion and benevolence forbade him from killing the man. Thus, he decided to let the prisoner escape by sending him off to an unguarded island. This is how Dr Sadao successfully resolved the conflict.
  10. It was Dr Sadao’s moral responsibility, as a doctor, to save the American prisoner of war, but Hana was under no such compulsion. Despite this, she stood by her husband’s decisions because she was a dutiful wife who pledged to support her husband even through his thick and thins.
    Besides, being a woman, Hana was soft-hearted. She could not see a wounded person being left in the lurch. She played the role of a life-giver and a preserver - as a woman is. She could not have been a destroyer. That is why she cleaned the prisoner when her maid was unwilling to do so. She also assisted her husband while operating the white prisoner, even though she could not stand the blood and started vomiting when she saw it. Hence, Hana could be said to be a dutiful wife and a woman possessing life-giving quality.